Lewis Hamilton Wins Italian Grand Prix At Monza

09/09/2012 16:06

PA/Huffington Post UK

Lewis Hamilton has sped to victory in the Italian Grand Prix, refreshing his hopes of Formula One world title glory.

After crashing out at the first corner of last Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix along with championship leader Fernando Alonso, and amid the saga of his contract negotiations with McLaren, Hamilton conjured a superb drive at Monza to claim his third win of the season and 20th of his career. Button failed to finish after having problems with his fuel flow.

The Briton finished 4.3 seconds ahead of Sauber's Sergio Perez in second place, with Alonso giving the Ferrari fans plenty to cheer with third to establish a 37-point gap in the standings ahead of new second-placed man Hamilton.

Instead, it was Ferrari's Felipe Massa who proved to be the biggest thorn in Hamilton's side as the Brazilian attacked going into the first chicane, Rettifilo.

Hamilton, however, just did enough to keep his old rival at bay, the duo avoiding a collision after becoming entangled on numerous occasions last season.

The upshot leaves Hamilton as Alonso's nearest challenger, with Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen a further point down in third after the Finn today finished fifth, whilst Vettel is a further point adrift. Webber is now 47 points down overall.

A happy Hamilton said: "It's a fantastic win in front of the best crowd. I'm happy for the team. It's been the best day."

Perez was beaming from ear to ear as he said: "That was a great race for me for my team. It's unbelievable to get a podium in Monza. It's really special."

Taking the bulk of the cheers from the crowd, Alonso was content enough with third as he said: "It was a difficult race starting 10th, but we knew we had the quickest car, so to recover the way we did was good."

The Mercedes duo of Schumacher and Nico Rosberg were sixth and seventh, followed by Paul Di Resta in his Force India, the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi and Williams of Bruno Senna.